The main trend of design in consumer electronic applications, e.g. notebook, tablet and smart phone devices, is to reduce the thickness and extend the visual screen to the largest extent feasible. Therefore, high modulus materials with good ductility are needed for components of these devices such as the housing or internal support. Blended polycarbonate polymer composites are typically used materials in the consumer electronic industry due the excellent processing and low cost. In consumer electronic industry, polycarbonate is a widely used thermal plastic (e.g., thermoplastic) for different applications.
In some applications requiring high stiffness, the most effective way to elevate modulus in blended polycarbonate compositions is to incorporate glass fiber or carbon fiber into polycarbonate, with glass fiber being more cost-effective than carbon fiber. However, glass fiber generally lowers the ductility and flowability, especially when the fiber loading is high, of blended polycarbonate compositions. To compensate the loss of ductility, current approaches typically introduce certain impact modifier such as MBS, acrylate block copolymer. Unfortunately, such elastomer based impact modifiers lower the modulus and flowability, or seriously degrade the flame retardancy rating.
Thus, there remains a need for blended thermoplastic compositions that effectively balance the modulus, impact and flowability properties.